How to quickly bust blueberries off the leaves

Blueberries are a marsh berry that contains a large amount of nutrients. It has a slightly astringent sweet taste, delicate texture and thin skin. It is necessary to quickly sort out blueberries so that they do not lose moisture and nutrients before processing or storage.

At room temperature, the berry can be kept for no more than a day, in the refrigerator – a week. In any case, even with short-term storage, ripe, already tender blueberries will become even softer and may leak. It must be sorted out immediately after collection. Even after a day, it is unlikely that it will be possible to clean the fruits without damaging them from twigs and leaves.

Blueberry Picking Rules

Currently, there are no garden varieties of blueberries. It has not yet been introduced into culture and breeding work with the plant has not been carried out.

Blueberries are harvested at full maturity from July to August. Plucked from the bush, it cannot ripen during storage. Only blue-black fruits that are easily removed from the bush are suitable for food and treatment.

The collection is carried out in dry weather, waiting until the dew subsides. A plucked wet berry is poorly stored, can quickly leak and deform.

Often, special combs, buckets with teeth or other devices are used for mass collection. This greatly harms the plant, next year there will be almost no berries in this place. In addition, fruits that have not had time to ripen, which will have to be rejected and thrown away, a lot of leaves, twigs and other debris, also fall under the comb.

Blueberries are best picked by hand. This will not only preserve the plant and next year’s harvest, but also facilitate the process of cleaning up debris. It will be easier to pick blueberries.

A few tips that may come in handy when picking blueberries:

1. Quality berries are blue-black, with a smooth, intact skin. The larger they are, the sweeter they are. Small hard fruits may taste sour.
2. Tender berries should be injured as little as possible. When collecting them, it is better to use the container in which they will be transported, and not pour them from small containers into large ones. It is generally better to refuse cellophane bags.
3. Ripe blueberries are easy to pick.
4. If you come across a branch on which there are a lot of berries, both ready for harvest and not yet ripe, you can carefully squeeze it between your palms and gently pull. At the same time, ripe fruits will remain in the hands, and green ones – on the plant.
5. Sunglasses should not be worn when picking blueberries – they will interfere with determining the degree of their maturity.

How to sort out blueberries from leaves

Of course, you can pick blueberries one by one, then there will be very little garbage. But how long will it take to pick up a bucket or basket?

If you sort the fruits by hand, they will not only be cleared of leaves and branches, but will also remain intact. But during the period of mass ripening of blueberries, this is an unacceptable waste of time. Therefore, berry pickers came up with other methods. They are not perfect, but they allow you to clean a large amount of fruit from debris without spending much effort. Some of the berries will be wrinkled, but they can be eaten fresh or put into processing.

1 method

In this way, you can sort out blueberries that are completely intended for immediate processing, freezing or fresh consumption. It is impossible to sell and hand over such a berry to harvesters – it simply will not reach its destination intact – it will flow and deform.

Blueberries are placed in a wide dish, much larger than the volume of the berries. Fill with cold water. In this case, all the debris floats up. It can be removed by hand, and if the bathroom acts as a container – with a large slotted spoon, sieve, colander. The berries are carefully transferred to a clean bowl. The procedure must be repeated, if the pollution is strong – several times.

Berries need to be processed immediately. If they must be stored for at least a day, this cleaning method should not be used.

2 method

This is the fastest way. It is often used by pickers if blueberries need to be immediately taken to the market or to a procurement organization. In windy weather, the berries do not even need to be carried home.

The container with blueberries is raised high and slowly poured into a clean bucket. The wind will help remove most of the debris. If the weather is calm, you can use a fan or even a hair dryer, but this is not possible at the collection point.

3 method

So you can sort out a small amount or a bucket of berries. If there are really a lot of blueberries, you should use another method.

They take a wide pan or a large dish with high sides, pour a handful of berries into it. Shaking the container, roll the blueberries along the bottom, and then pour them into a clean bowl. Most of the garbage will remain on the platter. It is cleaned with a damp sponge, wiped with a dry towel. Continue picking berries.

4 method

This is one of the most common ways to quickly sort through large quantities of blueberries while leaving them dry. You will need:

• table;
• an old bag or other rough cloth that you don’t mind getting dirty;
• slats, sticks or old towels to form the sides;
• stool;
• clean dishes for berries.

Of course, professional assemblers have special tools at hand.

But for the first time, you can sort out blueberries like this:

1. One side of the table is raised by placing something under the legs so that the slope is 20-30%.
2. The surface is covered with burlap.
3. From sticks or old towels, they form longitudinal, tapering sides at the low edge of the table so that the berries do not roll to the sides.
4. A stool and a clean bowl are placed under the makeshift bell.
5. A few handfuls of blueberries are poured onto the top of the table. Rolling down on a rough cloth, the berries will leave all the garbage on it and fall into the substituted dishes.
6. From time to time, the burlap should be removed from the table, and plant residues should be shaken off.

Thus, you can quickly sort through a large number of marsh berries – blueberries, blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries.

Conclusion

You can quickly sort out blueberries only by damaging some of the berries. The amount of waste depends on how carefully the procedure is carried out. The final cleaning occurs during the washing of the berries, it must be done immediately before processing or consuming blueberries.